Live From The Indy Convention

AG Eliot Spitzer seems poised to sweep the state Independence Party’s nominatingÂ vote, even thoughÂ Bill Weld has made a play forÂ Row C.

But, the proceedingsÂ were just briefly interrupted by Jessie Fields, an Independence PartyÂ member from Manhattan, who, along with a number of others, is abstaining from the vote in protest of state Chair Frank MacKay’s efforts to sideline the party’s most controversial member – Lenora Fulani.

Fields, who received cheers and applause, alleged this was done specifically at the request of “persons who are not party members.”

By this, it’s prettyÂ obvious she meant Spitzer and U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, who made it clear they would not accept theÂ Independence Party line if Fulani continued toÂ hold a leadership role, due to anti-Semitic remarks she made years ago and has since refused to repudiate.

Fields said MacKay and his supporters “threatened public office candidates, including Jeanine Pirro and William Weld, that they had no chance of running on the Independence Party line if they communicated with leaders of the Independence Party in New York City.”

Fulani is here,Â sitting in the audience with her supporters.

Jim Long, the attorney representing the Independence Party leadership in its legal wranglings with Fulani, (incidentally, he’s also Sen. Ada Smith’s lawyer), just handed me the latest update in the battle over three NYC Independence Party organizations that MacKay and his backers disbanded because of Fulani’s alleged influence over them.

The upshot: The dissolution of thoseÂ three organizations (in Bronx, Queens and Kings counties) holds. Â